The first thing to say is that it is never nice to kick a guy when he is down.
And Chris Robshaw is not even particularly down. He is just a bit fatigued.

On the sidelines:England skipper Chris RobshawPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Austin Healey

7:00AM BST 12 May 2013

He has not been picked for the Lions tour but he is just finishing a second impressive season on the trot, having been Aviva Player of the Season last year.

He led England really well this term until the last game against Wales. Then he was told he was not going on the Lions tour, and now he has been left out of the England tour of Argentina next month, with Tom Wood going instead as the team captain.

People inevitably will start to talk. They will start to wonder what might happen if Wood comes back having skippered England to an amazing tour of Argentina.

Wood is the sort of guy who does not say much, preferring to lead from the front. I do not know him that well but he strikes me as a really likeable guy who is there to play rugby and a bit of an old-schooler in the modern day game. He is very focused on what he does and makes lots of sacrifices for the team and I think that gains the respect of the players.

He is the right choice to be captain in Robshaw’s absence. Yet the crux of it is this: Stuart Lancaster knows that Chris Robshaw is the captain of England and when Australia come to Twickenham in November for the first of the three autumn Test matches, I expect him to still be his captain, unless he is injured.

Lancaster is loyal and Robshaw has taken him through a few scrapes during the last couple of seasons.

Lancaster has given him some time off and I believe it will have to take something out of the ordinary for the Harlequins flanker not to be starting those autumn internationals as captain.

Having said that, throughout your international career, you do often have to reinvent yourself, to mould yourself into a position when you become so valuable to the side that they cannot afford to lose you. I think he may need to look at that this summer.

I think he needs to become more of a scavenger seven. At the moment he is still caught between a six and a seven, as is Wood.

With players such as Luke Wallace and Matt Kvesic coming through as out and out sevens, I see Wood more of a six, in a similar fashion to Martin Corry.

Robshaw is a little bit different. He is reliable and a good leader but because he has a seven on his back, people expect him to do a different sort of job.

Robshaw likes to be a first receiver and carrying around corners, as does Wood, but the latter does a lot more work on the floor.

For the rest of the rugby world, it seems quite important to have an out-and-out seven. Australia have Michael Hooper, for example, while Wales even had two out-and-out sevens in their back row in Sam Warburton and Justic Tipuric.

England, on the other hand, do not. Given there are some really good ones coming through like Wallace, Kvesic and Will Fraser, who has been outstanding this season, maybe we are heading to the time when it becomes more fashionable for England to have a seven on the floor as opposed to stood up, offloading and running with the ball.

This potentially tough Argentina tour will be a stepping stone for players such as Kvesic to prove their worth and cease to be fringe players. At the minute, many of the touring party are guys we know very little about on the international stage.

But if they have a good tour, they go from fringe players to viable options for Lancaster. That is what makes this touring party so exciting.

I hope Christian Wade gets a start and that they do not just bring him off the bench for a few bit parts, saying “he can’t defend”.

That is the story you hear from around the England camp and the Lions. Well, frankly, if he has got to make two tackles a game and he misses one but also manages to scores four tries that no-one else in the game could score, I would probably want to be sat on his side.

Overall I think it was a good decision to rest players like Chris Ashton, Toby Flood, Brad Barritt and Danny Care - and especially Ashton. I think he just needs the summer off, do some fitness training, rediscover his spark and come back stronger in time for next season.

I still think Care will feature in Australia for the Lions as in each of the last four tours a scrum-half got injured.

It is great opportunity for the new faces in the squad to show Lancaster what they can do by playing regularly. Even though the tour will take place in the shadow of the Lions, we are still talking about the opportunity to represent your country.

Austin Healey is lead analyst for ESPN’s Aviva Premiership coverage. ESPN is showing today’s semi-final between Saracens and Northampton live from 2pm.

Emerging talent

Christian Wade He is the only player in the northern hemisphere who can set the field alight with his feet and pace . He is also one of the reasons why I go to watch Wasps.

Joel Tomkins He has got one of the best off-loading games in the midfield that I have seen from any player in rugby union or league. If you put him in a partnership with Manu Tuilagi or Brad Barritt, they will get more opportunities.

Matt Kvesic One of the players I am really looking forward to seeing. His move to Gloucester will help in terms of England selection and, if he has a good tour, he could have a very big 2014.

Rob Buchanan England need him to come through to really put pressure on Dylan Hartley and Tom Youngs at hooker. I would like to see him prove his worth at this level.

Freddie Burns He is off-the-cuff, and mercurial, but he needs to develop a level of control, an Owen Farrell-type steadiness.

If he can achieve that, then he will have all the characteristics required to take him way ahead of his rivals. But he needs to do the basics first.